“When a woman stands as a candidate, vote for them please. Give women power in the primaries so that we achieve 50/ 50 representation in leadership positions,” she said.
The constitution complements previous government efforts to level the playing field for women in order to achieve 50/50 representation as enshrined in the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development.
Women in parly
Zimbabwe, like many African countries, recorded considerable progress in the proportional representation of women in political leadership positions in recent years. Although, according to the 2008 Zimbabwean parliamentary election results, women representation in parliament stood at 19 percent, way below the projected 30 percent.
The country being a signatory to various regional and international protocols on women empowerment, such as the CEDAW of 1979 and Beijing Platform for Action of 1995, helped to make gender equality a reality in the supreme law of the land. The new draft constitution reserves 60 seats for women in parliament. According to the latest UN Millennium Goals Report released in 2012, women accounted for 19,7 percent of parliamentarians worldwide by the end of January 2012. This amounts to nearly a 75 percent increase since 1995 where women held 11,3 percent of parliamentary seats worldwide and a 44 percent increase over the 2000 level.
Quotas
While Sub Saharan Africa holds the second highest regional ranking in women’s representation in parliament at 20 percent, this progress was sustained thanks to the existence of quotas- mainly reserved seats.
To increase the number of women representatives at ward, district and provincial levels, political parties in Zimbabwe have established quotas to ensure women representatives are elevated to leadership positions at the grassroots level.
The MDC- T National Executive made a resolution that all the seats currently occupied by women will be not be contested by male contenders. Although party supporters petitioned the decision, the MDC-N maintained that they were making an effort to achieve equal representation of women from the grassroots level.
Are women ready?
The question that remains: are women ready for leadership positions?
Women in Politics Support Unit Director, Fanny Chirisa, said women had always been geared up for politics but the playing field was not level. Prior to independence, Chirisa said women were actively involved in politics. She mentioned Vice President, Joice Teurairopa Mujuru, Oppah Muchinguri, Brigadier General Gertrude Mutasa and the late Thenjiwe Lesabe.
“Women have always been there and it is not true that we are aspiring for leadership positions now, way after independence,” she said. “Women have been relegated to the periphery of politics because they lack the technical capacity and resources to participate in politics.”
Chirisa added that put on an equal footing with men, “women are better politicians because they are accountable to the people and development oriented.” “Currently, women in political leadership positions are testimony that women can do it. Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe received several international awards so did VP Mujuru. Sarah Mahoka, the Member of Parliament for Hurungwe East, developed her constituency with limited community development funds, ” she said.
An easy way in
She indicated that women parliamentarians had exhibited honesty and respect for state property. “They are all clean and they have accounted for the money that they received from treasury to develop their constituencies,” she said. As the country prepares for elections, citizens have expressed concern that the 60 seats reserved for women provide sitting female parliamentarians with an easy way in. Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe Director, Virginia Muwanigwa, dismissed this assertion as baseless and said: “There are a lot of competent women out there who because of power dynamics and cultural barriers have been failing to break even in politics”.
She said: “The reservation of seats was critical because something had to be done in order to level the playing field for aspiring female politicians.”
Raring to go
MDC-T aspiring MP for Chitungwiza North, Josephine Chitembwe, said although the playing field was better than it had been, issues such as political violence had to be addressed to encourage the participation of women in politics.
“We are raring to go and we have a good chance of beating our male counterparts because women constitute the greater percentage of the electorate. Supporting each other is the way to go,” she said. Findings from the UN MDGs 2012 report revealed that more women were elected in systems of proportional representation than in majority electoral systems. Data collected on elections in 2011 indicates that women were not vying for seats in sufficient numbers to make a large electoral impact.
Post published in: News